Cydia

BlackBerry Messenger was said to be released on iOS and Android on June 27 and although it is still going cross platform, it won’t be appearing at the previously said date. T-Mobile UK originally claimed in a recent tweet that BlackBerry Messenger for iOS and Android would launch on June 27 but BlackBerry recently issued a statement to say the reported date is inaccurate. According to them:

We will communicate an update as soon as we have an availability date to share.

When it launches this summer, BBM is expected to be a free download and it will be available for devices running at least iOS 6 or Android 4.0. BlackBerry, which is formerly known as Research in Motion, announced plans to take BBM cross-platform in May, with CEO Thorsten Heins describing the move as a sign of confidence.

Taking the service cross-platform could potentially allow BlackBerry to potentially attract customers from the two competing platforms. More likely it will allow the company to connect its existing customers to their contacts that do not have BlackBerry devices, potentially giving them a reason to stay with BlackBerry. The BlackBerry Messenger has been widely praised as a solid and secure messaging system, with it being the point of pride for the company during their successful time period. In the years since, a number of platform-specific and cross-platform apps and services have sprung up, many of have proven to be strong competitors.

When BBM debuts on Apple’s platform, it will not only compete against Apple’s iMessage, which reproduces many of BBM’s features as well as its security, but also third party apps such as WhatsApp and Line. The social media network Facebook has also been pushing its Facebook Messenger service on both Android and iOS. BBM will also have competition from a recently revamped Google service, Hangouts, which Google has used to tie together its several messaging services into a more cohesive single system.

Do you think you will be using BlackBerry Messenger once it is released? Do you know people who will?

The only thing that I want is a live screen share, no other app/tweak allows this (I'd think FaceTime would but nope -_-) its nice to be able to help others navigate something (like newbies learning to use cydia) when being able to see the screen